1st Chance Blood Brothers, 2nd Chance Human
by VerelLupin
Summary: Frankie has always struggled to live up to Edward's image but images can be deceiving. Can a second chance bring peace to these two brothers? *Spoiler for the movie* some language and some E/A.


**I have been bitten bad (no pun intended) by the Daybreaker bug. This is more of a Frankie piece but it has a bit of A/E and Cormac. I love him. **

**Anyway I do hate what happened at the end so I changed it. **

**I do plan on doing an Ipod drabble for this one. Its basically you set you Ipod on random and you use the first ten songs to make a drabble. Each drabble has to be written while the song plays. So once the song ends, you stop. I've done this for Avatar - Last Airbender and Harry Potter.**

**Its pretty fun and challenging. I dare you to give it a go. Besides we need more fanfiction for this movie. **

**Enjoy....**

* * *

**'Had it really come to this? A final stand of two brothers against an army of the undead?'**

Frankie stood on one side of the car with his gun dangling from his hand. Edward on the other standing protectively in front of the woman, both armed with sharp sticks.

"Don't do this."

Men he had served with sniffed the air, their pupils dilated. Their fangs dripped with saliva as the scent of three humans began to invade their deprived minds. There would be no escape. They would die trying. Edward held the stake with determination and the woman stood her ground too.

"Run!" He shouted and Edward looked confused for a second but the dawning was too late as Frankie let the gun drop and the men attacked.

He heard Edward shout but it was soon drowned out by snarling teeth and the pain of them ripping into his body. His blood perfumed the air just as the woman screamed out his brother's name and he faded into oblivion.

Frankie lay there unmoving and bloodied. Sounds of vampires feasting on their newly human comrades all above him. As he lay there in a pool of his own blood, his only thoughts were of his older brother. **'Was Edward safe? Had he managed to escape with his woman?'  
**

The frenzy stopped and all he could hear was the gulps of air of the now few human soldiers. Gunshots broke the silence and the vibrations of bodies hitting the floor roused him from his subconscious.

Some element of his vampire blood must have lingered.

He knew that he should be dead but already he could feel his ligaments knitting and rejoining together. The wounds in his neck beginning to close slowly as well. He heard commotion but his brain was still foggy from wandering past death's door.

Edward was kneeling beside him. The aftershave Frankie had bought him several Christmases ago was the single scent that rose above the stench of the blood around him. It gathered his scattered thoughts enough to remember that he was supposed to release his brother.

Frankie lay as still as he could, holding his breath in. Edward got up from the ground and Frankie opened his eyes to the sunlight flooding the building. Edward stood in front of him, his back to him. The woman stood next to Cormac their arms loosely linked around each other. It was the way he had stood with Edward 11 years ago. **'Before the betrayal, before the turning that had lost him a brother.'**

With his presence having gone unnoticed Frankie decided not to sit up. He instead closed his eyes and pretended to be dead. He owed Edward that much.

"Hey kid, when you're done playing dead maybe you'd like to get up and leave this shit hole before we find ourselves up to our asses in vamps."

'**Fucken, Cormac! Always thinks he knows everything.'**

Edward turned without an ounce of emotion and pulled him up to his feet. The woman approached and both Edward and Elvis left him alone with her to gather what supplies they could.

She had a bag with her. It was full of first aid. "Frankie, right?" she queried while cleaning and bandaging some of his lesser wounds. "I'm Audrey."

He wiped his bloody hand on his pants and shook hers. "Yeah, Frankie. Nice to meet you." He was absolutely uncomfortable and unsure of what to say to the woman he had endangered and made his brother risk his life for. "Thanks."

She put away the rest of items then withdrew a syringe with some clear liquid. "For the infection. Just in case. Thank you by the way."

Frankie replied with his own question. "So you and Ed…?"

She shrugged but her gaze wandered lovingly over his brother's form, which was now crouched over one of the many fallen soldiers. His shoulders were slumped and his posture was weary. Her face softened and he could see how much she wanted to comfort Edward.

"He's kinda reserved and he feels guilty about what he did for a living but he's a good guy." Frankie looked at her, "nothing like me. I'm sorry for ambushing you and getting you caught. I was never any good at being human."

Audrey smiled, lifted his hand and cleaned off the blood with the edge of her shirt. "I think you're doing pretty good so far and Edward…well he's different." She began to walk away but he gripped her arm.

"Take care of him. He's my only family."

Audrey clasped his hand tightly, "not anymore."

She let go and immediately headed to several other soldiers picking up whatever other items either Elvis or Edward might have missed.

Elvis however sat in the driver's seat watching and grinning, "so you coming too."

"You mind?"

Elvis cocked his gun and thumbed the safety. "Nope. Audrey is a pretty good judge of character. She likes your brother and whatever that says about him is enough to cover for you."

Frankie climbed gingerly into the back seat, which Elvis had covered with fatigues not soaked in blood. "Get in kid, and sleep. We're traveling quite a ways and night will be here faster than you know it."

Frankie nodded and arranged himself in the corner. And though his eyelids were drooping from exhaustion and loss of blood he didn't miss the low wolf whistle uttered by Elvis as the dark heads of Audrey and Edward pulled apart.

Several hours later a hand patted him awake. "We're here," Edward said helping him carefully out of the car. "Can you stand?"

"Yeah. Where are the others?"

"Inside. They're checking the place. You're still weak so I stayed behind."

He pulled out a cigarette and lit it. "I guess I'll have to give these up now," he muttered. It was a lame attempt to break the tension. "Why'd you come back?"

Frankie concentrated on the puff of smoke. He watched as it twirled into a slim plume and dissipated into the night sky. "You're my brother. Why else?"

Without a second glance Edward handed the cigarette to his brother. Frankie took a drag and passed it back. It was a habit they had picked up when they were younger. Frankie was surprised that Edward remembered.

"I never got to thank you for turning me."

Frankie looked down at his blood caked clothes, "that's not something you normally thank somebody for." Allison's face crossed his mind. "I did it against your will." He shut out the visions of her being dragged into the burning light.

"I'm sorry."

"Frankie, you wanna know what I've been mad at, all these years?" Edward words broke through the horrific recollections.

"When the epidemic happened I was fired from a job I hated. I was up to my neck in debts and I was pretty sure that Linda was screwing our boss," Edward said it conversationally as if they were discussing the weather.

"I bought a gun," Edward paused looking quickly towards the building and when neither Audrey or Elvis appeared he continued. "…and after drinking several bottles of whisky, I thought I was ready to pull that trigger. But staring down at that barrel, I realized I couldn't do it. I was a fucking coward."

Frankie stared at him not sure what to make of this confession.

"I cleaned up and slept off the booze and then in the middle of the night you showed up and just bit me. Just like that. No fear, no remorse. You just did it. All this time I've hated this existence but I was too chicken shit to end it so I endured and you excelled and I hated you for taking away the comfort that death was supposed to be."

Another drag and Frankie felt himself be pulled into his elder brother's arms. "I hated you for being the stronger brother but I thank you now for showing me I had the strength to do what I needed to do all along. I thank you for giving me a second chance."

Edward pulled away and stared into his baby brother's face. "My undead life was as pathetic as my first human life and because of you this second life won't be."

Frankie fought back the tears and the brothers hugged one last time coming apart just as Elvis rounded the corner. "So you two yahoos ready to fortify this motherfucker?"

Edward and Frankie laughed and followed the older man into the building.

Audrey stood by the front door pulling her hair into a ponytail. Edward walked purposely towards her and before she could say a word he hugged her to him. Audrey let out a surprised squawk but it was quickly muffled by Edward's lips. Soon her arms were wrapped just as tightly around him as his were around her.

"Oh for fuck's sake. Get a room." Elvis shouted much to Frankie's delight. The two men went in search of the kitchen leaving the two lovebirds alone.

"What was that about?" Audrey asked once she managed to pull her mouth from his.

"Why? You complaining?" Edward teased.

"Maybe," she kissed him. "Maybe not."

Edward bent his head down and whispered something that made her laugh.

"It ain't polite to eavesdrop son." Elvis muttered from behind him, scaring the hell out of Frankie.

Frankie let the kitchen door close all the way giving Edward and Audrey some privacy. "I killed my brother. I made him a fugitive, I nearly killed the woman he loves----"

"Don't forget you bit me too, you little shit." Cormac interrupted.

"---I bit you." Cormac grunted in acknowledgement. "And I got myself chewed on and out of all those stupid bad things, I managed to do one good one."

"Yeah? What's that?" Cormac asked.

"I gave my brother and me, a second chance."


End file.
